I actually liked that little scene between Jacen and TK in TJK--sort of a "bank-shot" kind of conversation that shows how serious they really are about each other without really saying it straight out. I'm like PadmeLeiaJaina here and have no clue how difficult your programs are to work with, but I certainly admire your efforts and love the fact that you're doing so many EU "shots!" I might have to have a go at this little interlude, myself! Great stuff, AG88!

Poser 6 is a little difficult to learn, but the more I practice the better I get. I bought the program in mid-July and really didn't start working with it until August, so I am pretty much a beginner.

I guess I can give you a glimpse as to how it works. First you start out with a default figure:[link=http://img447.imageshack.us/img447/1453/poserdefaultfigure0kz.jpg]Poser6 default figure[/link]

Now with the basic Poser 6 program you have three main figures to work with an adult male, female and a child. You can change your figure to any of these. In addition, you can start with them clothed as shown or nude and add clothing later (or as you seen in some of my Luke pics... why add clothing). Poser 6 also adds the option to add genitalia. I don't use this option since I don't need my kids walking in on me and see that. LOL.

The next thing you want to do is pose your figure in any position you desire: [link=http://img447.imageshack.us/img447/4733/posingposer6model9pn.jpg] Posed figure[/link]

You have control of every joint and muscle in the human body. I can move every single joint either individually or I can click and drag on the hand and, of course, the arm will follow. I learned the hard way to always use the "Limits" option with your figure. This does not allow you to put the figure in a position that is physically impossible. If I didn't use this option I could end up corkscrewing a person's body. I could literally have Kyp putting his head right up his... nevermind, you get the idea.

Anyway, once you get the correct pose you may want to add props, such as hair, facial expressions, different clothing, canes, guns, or whatever. If you need a certain prop you probably can buy it online. There are hundreds of computer experts out there making 3D weapons and clothes for your figure. [Link=http://img447.imageshack.us/img447/4603/altereddefaultfigure1hj.jpg]Figure with glasses and facial expression[/link]

The next thing you want to work on is the face. This is the default image for James, the adult male figure: [link=http://img447.imageshack.us/img447/1227/defaultface6jk.jpg]James[/link]

You can do anything to his face. There is probably a hundred different variables at your disposal. I can make James look like any nationality, race, age, and have any type of feature or skin color.

I just screwed around with the variables to see an altered face: [link=http://img447.imageshack.us/img447/1113/poseralteredface3jo.jpg]Altered face[/link]

Once you have your figure the way you want it you can adjust the lighting and move the camera anywhere you want it. Meaning you can be looking up or down or the side of the figure.

Once that is done you RENDER the picture. This adds the color, texture and lighting.

For example:

[image=http://img439.imageshack.us/img439/9697/beforeandafter9gd.jpg]

This is a before and after picture. The first one is what the Poser output is. The second one is after I painted in the clothing details and such.

I hope this helps you get a little understanding of the technology. As I said, I am a beginner, but I just love this program.

Great work...you're really getting into more complex poses and scenes! Drawing two people holding each other is hard enough let alone posing them on a computer! Well done! I like what you did with the painted version...the face in the first one scared me a little to be entirely honest. Well done! I haven't read this book so have no idea of the scene but I really get the love here. Great update!

For some reason, Jacen always seemed more likeable with a beard, don't know quite why.

Yeah, I like him with a beard also. Maybe he reminds me of young Obi-Wan or something.

CeiranHarmony said:

great pic! but why does Jacen look like Thrackan Sal Solo?

I'll take that as a compliment. Thrackan Sal Solo looks just like Han and why wouldn't Jacen not look like his father or members of his family? I was going for a Han Solo look here. The finished product doesn't look half bad. Thanks.

Corellian_Rogue said:

Well done! I like what you did with the painted version...the face in the first one scared me a little to be entirely honest. Well done!

LOL. I know what you mean. It is sometimes hard to tell what the face will look like until it is rendered. Because I was doing a complex scene, and because my computer is not that powerful, it took a long time to render the photo. I am not sure exactly how long, but after 10 or 15 minutes I left to go to the store and when I came back an hour later it was done. So it may only take 16 minutes, who knows. Usually when I do one figure it only takes a minute or two to render.

Anyway, I didn't like how Jacen's face looked. It reminded me of John Corbett, which isn't a bad look, but not the look I was going after. So, after taking so bloody long to render and fearing my computer would freeze up, I decided not to run it again and instead just alter the face manually by painting it.

Thank you everybody for your kind comments. I really appreciate it.

I decided that the background was too boring, so I redid it. But now it looks like a cheesey romance novel cover. LOL.

This is some good stuff! Congrats on the awesome work! I haven't looked around here lately, and this thread makes my eyes happy. Jacen/Tenel Ka is great. Don't know yet what I think about the Anakin one, but I'll tell you if I get the chance. I don't know... Maybe it's something in Anakin's face... But anyways, I can't wait until you post more work in the future!

Don't know yet what I think about the Anakin one, but I'll tell you if I get the chance. I don't know... Maybe it's something in Anakin's face...

I know what you mean. I wasn't totally happy with his face either. I tried making him grimace in pain, but when I zoomed out it looked like he was snarling. So I settled on a face that was a bit surprise and pain.

Thanks for taking the time to look at my pictures.

I have been working on some backgrounds and I thought I would post them without the foreground images blocking them because I think they turned out alright. I did them with Microsoft Digital Image pro10. They are basically Photo Manips. Each picture is probably a mixture of at least 6 images.

This one is the new background for the Jacen and Tenel Ka picture I did:

[image=http://img437.imageshack.us/img437/294/backgroundhapes6gk.jpg]

This is just a basic war image. I used a couple old photos of destruction from WWII, added some sky, and then I took a photo of a toy model of a Terminator Hunter/Killer and put it in the sky and made it look like it was flying and searching:

This next one I threw in a couple figures I created with Poser 6. The helmet and guns are from photos, but I actually painted on the armor and clothing... that is probably why they look bad. It is not my best work, but I need practice designing these 3D figures.

I put in all the lighting and shadows myself, but it doesn't look right to me. If anybody has suggestions or wants to give a go at fixing it, I would really appreciate it.

I'm really liking this Poser program you're wrestling/working with these days, AG88--you're getting some awesome figures out of it!

I think the only thing that detracts from the completed image is the incongruence with the lighting on the figures (which look really cool, btw--and I sort of get a kick out of Jango having a "hot" number in a green catsuit! )--the scene in the background is quite dark, while the "shaft" of light--that's what it is, right?--and its relationship to the figures is a bit confusing (well...to me, anyway...). The background scene/painting is awesome as it is--I wouldn't change anything there at all. You might want to try a low light source, in front of and angled up at the two figures, giving them a sort of stark and eerie kind of shadowing/highlighting--if that light were also warmer in color (reddish, or maybe yellow), it would compliment the bloody red planet hanging in the sky back there, too. I can't imagine how tough it might be to change this now, but the composition is good and the scene itself is great (Jango's stogie is a wonderful touch!). I've gotta hand it to you--you're really going to town with your creativity lately, and it's really showing some great results!

I totally agree. I was trying to think of what type of light source I would have for my figures in a night time scene, so I thought I would have them illuminated by the searchlights from the ships overhead. But now I am thinking that if perhaps there were other fires around the area that could light up the figures it would make the lighting problem less of a pain for me. I am going to work on this picture a bit more and take out the spotlight from above.

Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate the input.

EDIT: Okay, I worked on it a little this morning. Does this look any better?

In the FanArt Challenge thread there was the following Challenge [link=http://boards.theforce.net/Fan_Art/b10020/21793715/?31](here)[/link]:

OCTOBER FAN ART CHALLENGE:

Characters: Luke Skywalker or Count Dooku
Scene: Death Star Trench Run(ANH) or Anakin and Padme's Wedding(AOTC) Thing: draw any SW character, ship or scene in the style of the old Science Fiction movie posters Fun: A Halloween scene featuring something from the SW Universe

I decided to do the old SciFi movie poster part of the competition:

[image=http://img426.imageshack.us/img426/778/postercontest4dw.jpg]

The image is based on the novel Shatterpoint and the scene where Mace is nude, having just left the probiotic showers, and he as confronted by a bunch of thugs. He, of course, he kicks butt. That is my favorite part of the book.

What do you think? I wasn't sure if my man looked enough like Mace or not.

What a great way to start the day--with a big LOL!!
I don't know if it was meant to be funny, AG88, but it is to me: the look on Mace's face is pure "WHAT THE H!@#!?!?"--as though he suddenly found the papparrazi goon sitting in his shower, taking that picture, lol! Oh, man! I haven't read "Shatterpoint" and there's probably nothing funny in it--but for some reason, the way you've composed this is just a riot! Well done!

And on your Jango & Friend piece--much better! Removing the "spotlight" has improved the image tremendously (and I still love that "Grrrr!" look on Jango's face! Classic!), and the reddish highlights on his armor and both their faces is much more cohesive with the rest of the scene. Great "revision!"

What a great way to start the day--with a big LOL!!
I don't know if it was meant to be funny, AG88, but it is to me: the look on Mace's face is pure "WHAT THE H!@#!?!?"--as though he suddenly found the papparrazi goon sitting in his shower, taking that picture, lol! Oh, man! I haven't read "Shatterpoint" and there's probably nothing funny in it--but for some reason, the way you've composed this is just a riot! Well done!

Thanks FalconFan. Yeah, it was supposed to be funny. The book is very serious, but I found the shower scene to be slightly humorous. Mace tells the bad guys he sees the future and in it they are bleeding. Then he beats the snot out of them and they are on the ground bleeding and Mace stands over their broken bodies and simply says, "Told you."

Now, I don't know if the author intended that to be funny, but knowing the movies that Samuel L. Jackson played prior to his role as Mace Windu, I found it amusing.

The only thing that I didn't like about the picture was I wanted him to be dripping wet, but no matter how much I tried I could not get the look right using my Digital Image Pro program. Yesterday I downloaded a trial copy of Corel painter and I am practicing drawing water running down bodies. I may go back and revise Mace, but right now I have another dripping wet, naked Jedi picture in mind.

I was thinking of doing that scene in the novel Rebel Stand where Luke goes for a swim in a waste water tank full of some sort of omnivoristic red goo that eats everything it touches. Luke was able to communicate with the microbes and tell them that he wasn't food. Unfortunately, he didn't tell them that his clothes were not food also. The end result is his clothing gets eaten off his body leaving him butt naked and flashing a very embarrassed Danni Quee and Tahiri.

I figure I can practice drawing drops of water running down a body, I can also practice doing water reflections and rippling water. Oh, who am I kidding, it is just an excuse to draw Luke in the nude again. Don't worry, it is PG rated. It probably will be a while before I am finished with that picture since I am just learning how to use Corel painter.

FalconFan said:

And on your Jango & Friend piece--much better! Removing the "spotlight" has improved the image tremendously (and I still love that "Grrrr!" look on Jango's face! Classic!), and the reddish highlights on his armor and both their faces is much more cohesive with the rest of the scene. Great "revision!"

Thanks. I like it much better also. Everybody gave me great tips on how to improve the picture. I am very open to contructive criticism. I have only been doing digital art for a few months and there is a lot for me to learn. Of course, it is just a hobby. I am not going to quit my day job.

Thank you Double_Blade and MaraJade4S for stopping by my thread and taking the time to comment!

This is my favorite scene from the novel Rebel Stand. Luke has to swim through a vat of fluid full of microorganisms that eat everything. Luke tells the organisms that he is not food, but he forgot an important factor.

I did this picture with Corel Painter, Poser 6 and Microsoft Digital Image Pro 10. Mara is supposed to be wearing Vong Armor, but I need more practice painting. So it doesn't quite look right.

Oh, man--Mara's body language and posture are superb here, as though she's just shaking her head in amused frustration! I must go back and re-read "Rebel Stand!" It's so cool, to see how you illustrate these scenes, AG88! I think we all get "mind's eye pictures" of how it looks when we read--but it's awesome to actually see these little narratives rendered visually--and so creatively!

Wow - I swear with each picture you're just getting better and better at this! I agree that both are superbly drawn. You can tell exactly that Luke's embarressed beyond belief and Mara's shaking her head in disbelief.

Gah! Hilarious! I love the poses here, Luke very sheepish and Mara embarrassed. It's almost like she's saying... "Who is this person? He's so not associated with me!" I laughed so hard when reading this scene! I can't remember the quote exactly but I remember something like "for those of you who aren't your wife put some clothes on" And Face struggling to keep from laughing. Ah...good laughs.

Great job on this. Your progression with your technique and skill is clearly evident in your latest pieces. You are getting really sophisicated with the programs you use...I'd like to see you try to include some more digital painting in there, maybe to define your backgrounds a touch more? Or maybe to ground the characters in their backgrounds a little more? Dunno, either way your work is marvelous. And great choice of scenes, you sure do know how to pick them! I've always dreamt of doing the scenes that you have, and here they all are wonderfully done!

Bless Aaron Allston, I'm glad they finally let him have a book or two in the NJO! Brought some semblance of cred to the series.

Wow, all these fantastic pics to catch up on! I love them all, but I especially love the Anakin one earlier on - you've really captured the scene perfectly. Love the look on Luke's face in the most recent one, and Mara's body language is just right... Wonderful work as always! Can't wait to see what else you've got up your sleeve...

Thank you Idrelle_Miocovani, Falcon_Fan, PadmeLeiaJaina, JadeLotus, Corellian_Rogue, Knight_Aragorn and Zonoma for stopping by my thread and taking a look at my pictures. I really appreciate your comments. I am glad you all liked how Mara and Luke turned out.

Mara is fairly easy to make up since I can use artistic license on how she looks. But Luke... we all know what Luke looks like. He is always a pain to get right and I really want to get away from photoshoping his head onto of a body I create. I am hoping to one day to get away from using photos when it comes to people at least. I have Bryce 5.5 and I hope to one day be able to create landscapes and stop using photos for that also.

Corellian_Rogue said:

I'd like to see you try to include some more digital painting in there, maybe to define your backgrounds a touch more?

I do want to be able to use the Corel Painter program more. I just downloaded it a less than a week ago, so I am still very confused on how to work the program. Give me a few weeks and hopefully I will have the hang of it by then.

Meanwhile, I need the advice from the artists out there on some coverart I working on. I have been working on some coverart for a friends fanfic called Bearing the Chosen [link=http://boards.theforce.net/Beyond_the_Saga/b10477/21803117/?264]here[/link] It is a really great Alternate Universe fic. The basic premise is sometime after the Jedi Academy Trilogy a very unmarried Mara gets knocked up by the Force. She is bearing another Chosen One. Needless to say, she is not very happy with the Force. Anyway, Luke, being the wonderful, sexy Farmboy that he is steps up to the plate to help Mara during this trying time. It is a romance/angst story.

Anyway, I have a rough draft of the coverart, but I think it may be too busy. The two figures are supposed to be Mara and Luke, but Luke didn't come out that well, but I think people can guess who he is supposed to be. Any suggestions? Is it too busy? Should I go in a whole different direction?

I made the people with Poser 6 and Corel Painter (I actually painted most of Mara's hair because I didn't like how it turned out using Poser 6). I also did touch ups on Luke's face with painter. The background is a mixture of about 10 stock photos of stars and such.

nice for the last 2...funny scene with luke in NJO...and wraiths were there 2...gold

out of the 2 version for chosen i definitely like the 2nd with luke face pasted...ive not really like the faces on most of them...and plus the luke face blends REALLY well...u should do maras face tooo...would look great then